Five books on the civil rights movement

The Civil Rights Movement reached a crescendo in 1963, as marchers braved fire hoses, police dogs, vitriol, and violence to demonstrate against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The Ku Klux Klan retaliated by bombing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls in the process. The reaction transformed the nascent movement into a national cause and led to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. McWhorter, born in Birmingham, won the Pulitzer Prize for her insider's perspective on the conflict, which features interviews with everyone from black activists to former Klansmen.